making progress, but still not there, new/different error messages now
from vmkernel.log:
2020-09-30T23:48:25.697Z cpu4:67569 opID=8ac87db1)World: 12230: VC opID esxui-cd3a-1143 maps to vmkernel opID 8ac87db1
2020-09-30T23:48:25.697Z cpu4:67569 opID=8ac87db1)NFS41: NFS41_VSIMountSet:423: Mount server: 10.1.1.31, port: 2049, path: esxi, label: nas, security: 1 user: , options: <none>
2020-09-30T23:48:25.697Z cpu4:67569 opID=8ac87db1)StorageApdHandler: 977: APD Handle Created with lock[StorageApd-0x4306f58bed70]
2020-09-30T23:48:25.698Z cpu4:66344)WARNING: NFS41: NFS41ExidPathProcess:2126: Server doesn't support the NFS 4.1 SunRPC program
2020-09-30T23:48:35.700Z cpu4:66344)WARNING: NFS41: NFS41ExidPathProcess:2126: Server doesn't support the NFS 4.1 SunRPC program
2020-09-30T23:48:45.700Z cpu4:66344)WARNING: NFS41: NFS41ExidPathProcess:2126: Server doesn't support the NFS 4.1 SunRPC program
2020-09-30T23:48:55.697Z cpu4:67569 opID=8ac87db1)WARNING: NFS41: NFS41FSWaitForCluster:3637: Failed to wait for the cluster to be located: Timeout
2020-09-30T23:48:55.697Z cpu4:67569 opID=8ac87db1)WARNING: NFS41: NFS41_FSMount:4683: NFS41FSDoMount failed: Timeout
2020-09-30T23:48:55.697Z cpu4:67569 opID=8ac87db1)StorageApdHandler: 1062: Freeing APD handle 0x4306f58bed70 []
2020-09-30T23:48:55.697Z cpu4:67569 opID=8ac87db1)StorageApdHandler: 1147: APD Handle freed!
2020-09-30T23:48:55.697Z cpu4:67569 opID=8ac87db1)WARNING: NFS41: NFS41_VSIMountSet:431: NFS41_FSMount failed: Timeout
2020-09-30T23:48:55.698Z cpu5:66344)SunRPC: 1116: Destroying world 0x7af79